Paper bag holder



Feb. 12, 1957 Filed June 22, 1953 A. B. CAMPBELL, JR

PAPER BAG HOLDER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VENTOR fllexanderfiampbelt/r:

ATTORNEYS United States Patent PAPER BAG HOLDER Alexander B. Campbell, Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.

Application June 22, 1953, Serial No. 363,134

2 Claims. (Cl. 221-45) My invention relates to improvements in paper bag holders of the dispensing type in which paper bags may be easily inserted and withdrawn from the holder.

With the advent of self-service retail grocery stores and particularly the feature of customers helping themselves with the fruits and vegetables it is important that supplies of paper bag containers be provided. It is important that these bags be easily accessible to the customers and maintained in an orderly fashion. It is equally important that the holders for such containers as paper bags be easily replenished by the attendants of the store and that a selectively large supply of bags be carried by the holders.

it is an object of my invention to provide a drawerlike holder open at the top for the reception of a stack of paper bags that will be urged toward the front of the drawer by biasing means so that they may be Withdrawn successively from an aperture formed in the front of the drawer.

Another object of my invention is to provide in a bag holder drawer a slide which slides in a guideway extending from the back to the front in the bottom of the drawer and which will push a stack of vertically arranged bags to the front of the drawer where they may be successively removed from an aperture in the front of the drawer.

A further object of my invention is to provide a bag holder drawer with a slidable bag pusher which has pivotally attached a bag contact member that may be tilted to facilitate insertion of a stack of bags into the top of the drawer yet after insertion of the bags such contact member will be urged to apply pressure evenly to the back of the stack of bags to push them towards the front of the drawer for withdrawal.

A still further object of the invention is to provide in a bag holder drawer a biased bag pusher slide which may be temporarily held in its furthest position from the front of the drawer towards which it slides so that a stack of paper bags may be easily inserted into the drawer following which the slide may be easily released so that a spring means attached thereto will urge it to push the bags towards the front of the drawer.

Another object of my invention is to provide a closure or housing open at the front and having a plurality of bag holder drawers of the type above described which may he slid into and out of the closure for replenishment of the bags in the drawers.

Still further objects and the entire scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter; it should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific example is given by way of illustration only and, while indicating preferred embodiment of the invention, is not given by way of limitation, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

For a more complete understanding of my invention reference may be had to the drawings and specification in which:

Fig. l is a front elevational view of the closure holding a number of bag holder drawers according to my invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical cross sectional view of one of the bag drawers as viewed along sectional line 22 in Fig. 3 showing a stack of bags pushed by the bag pusher and how the bag pusher may be retracted for insertion of a stack of bags;

Fig. 3 is a front elevational view of the bag holder drawer according to my invention;

Fig. 4 is a vertical cross sectional view as viewed along line 44 of Fig. 2 which shows the slide carrying the bag pusher; and a Fig. 5 is a top plan view as viewed along section line 55 of Fig. 2.

Throughout the description similar reference figures refer to similar parts in the various figures.

Referring to Fig. 1 there is illustrated a rectangular box-like closure 19 which is open at the front and into which is slid a plurality of bag holder drawers 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d and 122.

In Figures 2-5, typical bag holder drawer designated 12a in Fig. 1 is shown and described hereinafter. The other bag holder drawers shown in Fig. l are of various decreasing widths to accommodate various other sizes of bags.

The bag holder drawer 12a according to my invention is an elongated drawer adapted to accommodate a stack of bags 14 in a vertically disposed position. These bags 15 in stack 14 are of the satchel bottom type having a satchel bottom 15a presenting a flap or tab portion as at 15b which may be grasped by the fingers to extract a bag as will be described hereinafter.

Bag holder drawer 12a is illustrated as formed of wood but it could equally as well be formed of a light sheet metal stock. It has two sides 16, 17, and a back 18 and a front 19. tl is also provided with a bottom 20 that is positioned in spaced relation to the bottom edge 20 of the drawer and is mounted in suitable grooves in the sides 16 and 17, and the front 19 and back 18 as best shown in Pig. 4.

Figures 2 and 3 best show the hand hole or aperture 22 in the front 19. Aperture 22 is shown adjacent the upper end of the drawer and through it the bags 15 from stack 14- are drawn one by one. Aperture 22 is formed with a central rectangular section 22 having a width just sufficient to accommodate the width of a bag for which it is designed to house. The upper and lower adjoining portions 22a and 22b of the hole 22 are beveled to converge towards each other inwardly as best depicted in Figures 2 and 3. It will be observed in Figures 2 and 4 that front 19 is formed with a shoulder or abutment 22c behind the beveled upper portion 22:: of hole 22 so that the bottom 15a of the bag is held thereagainst by pressure of the bag pusher to be described.

Mounted on the upper side of bottom member 20 are two spaced apart longitudinal members 23 and 24 which extend from the back 18 to the front 19. These may be is disposed between the tongues 26a and 26b an upstandi a vertical attitude.

' drawer.

3 ing bag pusher 27 as by meansof gluing or a screw member (not shown). Pusher 27 has a transverse rectangular flat plate 27a aflixed to its front edge and this extends in Members 27 and 27:: extend upward for a distance about one-half of the height of the drawer 12a from its bottom member 2%) to its top edge 12a. Attached to the upper end face portion of pusher member 27a are a pair of hinges 2828. These hinges 28-28 pivotally support a bag contact member 29 which is a rectangular flat plate that extends substantially the full depth of the drawer 12a from its top edge 22a to the top of the slide 26 and in width substantially the internal width of the inside of the drawer 32a. The

which is to permit backward tilting so that a stack of bags may be easily inserted into the drawer from the top thereof and the second feature of conforming to the rear surface of the stack of bags. By conforming to the rear surface slant of a stack of bags even pressure is placed on the rear of the stack to urge it towards the front member 19 for dispensing of each individual bag in succession. While I have shown in Fig. 2 a relatively small stack of bags 14, a stack may be placed in the space defined between the rear of front member 19 and the front of the bag contact member 29 when the bag contact member 29 has been retracted fully towards the rear of the drawer as when slide member 25 is slid as far back as possible in the guideway 25. When a large stack of bags is placed in the drawer with their satchel bottoms towards the top of the drawer there is a tendency for the stack to be thicker from front to back at the top than it is at the bottom and thus with the front of the stack positioned in a vertical attitude against front member 19, the rear face of the stack will have a tendency to slant upward and rearwardly sothat contact member 29 by its pivoted mounting will tilt and conform to the full rear surface of a complete stack of bags 14. By this pivoting of contact member 29, the slide or bag pusher 27-27rz will exert a push on the contact member 29 which in turn will push against the whole surfaces-f the stack of bags to feed it uniformly toward the front of the even though only a few bags remain in the drawer, they will be pushed up against the rear face of the front member 19 so that all bags are presented to the opening 22 in front member 19 for removal. a

By this manner of construction and operation 4 ment with the L-shaped catch 33. Latch member 35 is formed with an integral depending finger 35 which extends downward through aperture a such that it may be contacted by the rear end of a trip rod or bar 39 mounted 'below bottom member 29 as by mounting member 33 thereby permitting tension spring 30'to pull slide a be mounted on its side for sliding movement.

member 26 forward toward the stack of bags 14 and the front member 19. Control rod 39 is biased toward the front as by a compression spring 42 mounted intermediate mounting member 44) and a transverse pin 43 placed in rod 39. 7

While I have illustrated and described a bag drawer such as 12a as mounted in "a vertical attitude such that a stack of bags may be loaded or inserted thereinto from the open top of the drawer, such a drawer could In such a case the bags would be loaded into the drawer from a side and horizontal position rather than from the top and a vertical position. In such a case, as just described, the drawers would be banked one on top of another or in siideways one on top of another. Also as an alternative as 14, would be placed into the drawers with their satchel Referring to Figures 2 and 4, there is shown biasing aperture 20b may be formed therein along its longitudinal axis in spaced relation from its front end for purposes of assisting in the assembly and mounting of spring 30.

Attached to the underneath side and at the rear end of slide member 26 is an L-shaped catch 33 as by means of a screw 34. Eye screw 32 may also pass through an aperture suitably provided in the L-shaped catch member 33. A latch member 35 is pivotally mounted as by' a a pivot pin 36 to a bifurcated mounting member 37 construction within the scope of my invention, access aperture 22 in the front 19 of the drawer 12a could be disposed in spaced relation from the bottom end thereof. In such a case as last mentioned, the stack of bags, such bottoms disposed at the bottom of the drawer and the flap or tab 15b of each bag would extend upward instead of downward as depicted in Figure 2. However, I have illustrated the preferred construction.

In Figure l, closure 10 housing the drawers 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d and 1212 is described as having its front open so that the drawers may be pulled out for loading, it is within the scope of my invention that closure or housing 10 may be open at the back so that the drawers may be pulled back for loading. Such a construction would permit and facilitate the mounting of housing 10 in an aperture formed in a partition or a wall. This would permit loading of the drawers with bags from behind such a.

wall or partition.

I have herein illustrated and described my invention which provides for an economical bag holder that may be used by customers with ease yet houses a large number of bags thus necessitatin only periodic loading which is done with ease and facility by the, store operators. Although I have illustrated satchel bottom bags being dispensed, bags of other types may equally as well be dispensed.

I claim as my invention: a

l. A paper bag holder comprising a drawer'open at the top and adapted to be slid into and out of a closure for receiving paper bags, said drawer comprising side members, a bottom member, a back and a front, said front having an opening therein adjacent one end through which bags are withdrawn which have been inserted through the top of said drawer, a guideway in the bottom of said drawer extending from the back to the front and being below the bottom of said bags, a slide member mounted in said guideway for sliding movement therein below the bottom of said bags, said slide having an up which is secured to the inner face of back member 18 as r by screws 38. Disposed over pivot pin as is a coiled wardly extending bag" pusher member attached thereto, a bag contacting member pivotally mounted 'on the upper end of said bag pusher and extending approximately the whole height of said drawer, said pivotal mounting being approximatelyin the middle of the length of said bag contacting member whereby its top end may be pivoted towards said back end of the drawer thereby permitting easier insertion of bags between the front end of the drawer and said bag contacting member and wherein said bag contacting member afiords a uniform pressure against said bags to urge them towards the front of said drawer for withdrawal, biasing means attached to said slide member and said drawer urging said slide member towards the front of the drawer, and a catch means at the rear of the drawer and the guideway and having an operating finger extending downward through an aperture formed in said bottom member, securing means attached to the rear of said slide member for engagement with said catch means whereupon movement of said slide to the rear of the drawer causes said securing means on the slide to be engaged by the catch means to hold the slide in position at the rear of the drawer, an operating rod for engaging said operating finger of said catch means reciprocably mounted on the underneath side of said bottom member and extending through an aperture formed in said front, and biasing means urging said operating rod to extend outward from said drawer beyond the front thereof whereby pushing inward on said rod presses the rear end of the rod against said operating finger to release the catch from said securing means on said slide to permit said biasing means attached to said slide to urge it toward the front of said drawer and thereby push said bags forward.

2. A paper bag holder comprising a drawer open at the top and adapted to be slid into and out of a closure for receiving paper bags, said drawer comprising side members, a back, a front and a bottom member disposed in spaced relation inward from a horizontal plane containing the bottom edges of said side members, said front having an opening therein adjacent the top end thereof through which bags are withdrawn which have been inserted through the top of the drawer, a guideway above the upper surface of said bottom member in the lower part of the drawer and in spaced relation above said horizontal plane containing the bottom edge of said side members and extending from the back to the front, a slide member mounted in said guideway for sliding movement therein and having an upwardly extending bag pusher member attached thereto, said bag pusher member having a bag contact member pivotally attached to the upper end thereof by a pivotal connection at approximately the midpoint of said bag contact member, said bag contact member being flat and rectangular in shape and extending substantially the inner width of the drawer in width and from the guideway to adjacent the top of the drawer in length, said bag contact member being tiitable toward and away irom the back of said drawer,

tension spring disposed intermediate said bottom memer tr drawer and said slide member and having one ered to the front the drawer while the other attached to the slide member whereby said slide member is urged toward said front of the drawer, a catch means at the rear of the drawer and intermediate bottom member and said slide member and having operating finger extending downward through an aper ture formed in said bottom member, securing means attached to the rear of said slide member for engagement with said catch means whereby movement of said slide member to the rear of the drawer causes said securing means on the slide member to be engaged by the catch means to hold the slide member in position at the rear of the drawer, an operating rod for engaging said operating finger of said catch means reciprocably mounted 'on the underneath side of said bottom member and extending through an aperture formed in said front, biasing means urging said operating rod to extend outward from said drawer beyond the front thereof whereby pushing inward on said operating rod presses the rear end of the operating rod against said operating finger to release the catch means from said securing means on said slide member to permit said tension spring attached to said slide member to urge it toward the front of said drawer.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 859,853 Stewart July 9, 1907 1,057,971 Marrs Apr. 1, 1913 1,331,417 Cowan Feb. 17, 1920 1,553,510 Craft Sept. 15, 1925 1,703,594 Pratt Feb. 26, 1929 1,729,349 Krueger Sept. 24, 1929 1,794,208 Scott Feb. 24, 1931 2,021,659 Judkins Nov. 19, 1935 2,277,815 Broeren et al. Mar. 31, 1942 2,432,415 Hatcher et al. Dec. 9, 1947 2,607,463 Saigh Aug. 19, 1952 

